Street race a walk down memory lane
The Age
Monday December 7, 2009
IT WAS Sydney first, second and third on the final day of the city's first V8 Supercars street racing carnival.They all live elsewhere now, but James Courtney (Penrith), Michael Caruso (Collaroy) and Mark Winterbottom (Doonside) used to race karts against each other as kids and yesterday's Olympic Park podium was like a trip down memory lane for the trio.They had triumphed in what 2009 champion driver Jamie Whincup said was the toughest race of the year.The 74 laps of the 3.4-kilometre circuit yesterday were frequently punctuated by crashes, scrapes, bumps, safety cars, pit lane infringements and lead changes.Of the 29 cars that started, only 16 finished and the Did Not Finish list included Garth Tander, who won Saturday's 250-kilometre race.The attrition came about because of the tight and treacherous street circuit and the "death or glory" mentality of drivers determined to finish the series on a high.Lee Holdsworth, in a Holden, started from pole position and Courtney was next to him.The carnage started on the first lap and the first casualty was Steven Richards, who went into the concrete wall on turn five.Then the track's turn eight started to throw its weight around. Rick Kelly's Jack Daniel's Holden fell back to sixth spot after giving the tyre wall a serious scrape then he ended his race on lap 13 by crashing at the same spot.On lap 22, Holdsworth also met his doom at turn eight, doing so much damage he couldn't even limp back to the pits.The other killer corner proved to be turn one at the end of pit straight.Tander got a nudge from Caruso on lap 29 there, went up the escape road, stalled and his race was over because he had knocked his starter motor off earlier.On lap 39 Whincup roared out of the pits on cold, fresh tyres, failed to take the 90-degree left-hander at turn one and crashed into the tyre wall.He had been "day dreaming" when he committed the "rookie error". Whincup finished in 14th position.After 60 laps Courtney had a lead of more than four seconds over second-place Caruso to take the chequered flag.Courtney, 29, is proving himself a street circuit expert and enjoyed his only other race win this season at the Townsville street race.
© 2009 The Age
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